Lin murder accused's bail plea - Robert Xie to face trial for murder

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FACING life in jail if found guilty of the Lin family murders, Robert Xie has "real and serious incentive" to flee the country and should remain behind bars until his trial, a court heard yesterday.

Minutes after he was told he would stand trial for the family killings - with magistrate John Andrews satisfied enough evidence exists for a jury to convict him - Xie applied for bail.

It was his third attempt at release since his May 2011 arrest.

The 48-year-old will face a Supreme Court jury charged with murdering his brother-in-law Min Lin, Min's wife Lillie, her sister Irene and two young boys who cannot be identified.

He is accused of bashing them to death with a "hammer type weapon" in their North Epping home on July 18, 2009.

Almost a year to the day of his first application for bail, Xie's solicitor Lester Fernandez gave Central Local Court a multi-pronged plan of the "exceptional circumstances" as to why he should be granted bail despite facing five counts of murder.

Mr Fernandez said Xie visited his native China three times between the murders and his arrest, and returned to Australia each time. He said he could report twice a day to police, follow a night curfew and have his family surrender their passports.

"He would be monitored more closely than just about anyone else in the state," Mr Fernandez said.

But the state's senior crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC told the court Xie would face "a very, very lengthy sentence" if convicted and therefore has "a serious incentive to flee the jurisdiction".

"(Xie) is a very real flight risk," Mr Tedeschi said, adding the $200,000 cash offered as surety for bail by Xie's sister paled in comparison to the "unlimited" money and resources he would have access to in China.

Xie will face a three-month murder trial, with a date to be set in the Supreme Court in February, but his lawyers say the case against him is based on nothing but "speculation, conjecture and suspicion".

But Mr Andrews - who will make his decision on bail today - said "there is a reasonable prospect that a reasonable jury, properly instructed, would convict the defendant".